Heath Simonis

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Heide Simonis with Markus Lanz (2011)

Heide Simonis , b. Steinhardt (born July 4, 1943 in Bonn ) is a former German politician ( SPD ).

From 1988 to 1993 she was Finance Minister and from 1993 to 2005 Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein . From 2005 to 2008 she was chairwoman of UNICEF Germany.

She was the first woman to head a German state government and is one of the honorary citizens of Schleswig-Holstein (the sixth person, first woman).

Life

family

Heide Simonis is the first of three daughters of Horst and Sophia Steinhardt. Her sisters are called Doris and Barbara. Simonis' father came from a merchant family in Königsberg , her mother from a Rhenish craftsman family. After his return to the war, his father worked at what was then the Federal Employment Agency and became administrative director. Her mother was briefly employed as the second secretary of the then Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer . Simonis describes her father as politically “German-national”, her mother as “even further to the right”.

Heide Simonis has been married to the economist Udo Ernst Simonis since 1967 , whom she met during her studies in Kiel and who was professor of economics at the Technical University of Berlin and director and research professor for environmental policy at the Berlin Science Center for social research . The marriage is childless.

Childhood and youth

In her early childhood, Simonis suffered from severe asthma , which is why she spent longer periods of time in children's homes in Bad Soden, Freudenstadt , Garmisch-Partenkirchen and in the Westerwald from the age of three , which she remembers very positively. When the family moved, first to Hamburg and later to Nuremberg , she attended various schools. Your High School put 1962 starting at an evangelical girls' high school in Nuremberg, where she served as class president and as Deputy Head Girl acted.

Study and job

Simonis originally planned to study physics in Munich , but because of her mother's doubts and concerns, she decided to study economics at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg . Due to the family moving to Kiel again , where her father had found a job as director of the employment office, she continued her studies at the Christian Albrechts University there . In 1967 she passed her exams and obtained the degree of economics degree .

From 1967 to 1969 the Simonis lived in the Zambian capital Lusaka , where Udo Simonis worked as a personal advisor to President Kenneth Kaunda and worked on projects for regional development. Meanwhile, Heide Simonis was teaching German at the University of Lusaka and working for Zambian Airways . She also participated in development projects initiated by the Church.

After her return to Germany, Heide Simonis initially worked as a secretary at the Institute for Finance in Kiel. In 1970 her husband was one of twelve scientists worldwide to receive a scholarship from the Japanese Society for the Advancement of Science, which enabled him to work at the Institute for Developing Countries Research and at the University of Tokyo . Heide Simonis accompanied her husband here too. In order to earn a living, she worked as a German lecturer at the Goethe Institute in Tokyo and as a marketing researcher for Triumph International . Back in Germany, she was from 1972 guidance counselor for high school and university students in the Federal Labor Office the employment office in Kiel.

Political career

Political party

Heide Simonis has been a member of the SPD since 1969. From 1972 to 1976 she was a member of the district executive committee of the SPD in Kiel. From 1988 to 1991 and again from 1993 to 2005 she was a member of the SPD party executive.

MPs

Heide Simonis 1972 in Kiel

From 1972 to 1976 Simonis was a member of the Kiel Council. In 1976 she was elected as a direct candidate in the constituency of Rendsburg-Eckernförde as the youngest member of the Bundestag at the time to be a member of the German Bundestag . a. took the position of financial policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group . In 1988 she left the Bundestag .

From 1992 to 2005 she was a member of the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein . Heide Simonis was last elected member of the constituency (at that time) 20 ( Kiel-Ost ) with 59.8% of the votes . On April 27, 2005, she resigned from the state parliament.

Public offices

After the change of government in Schleswig-Holstein, Heide Simonis was appointed to the office of Finance Minister Schleswig-Holstein on May 31, 1988 by Björn Engholm . After Günther Jansen's resignation , on March 10, 1993 she also became Deputy Prime Minister Björn Engholm. From August 1990 to May 1993 she was finance minister and chairwoman of the “ Tarifgemeinschaft deutscher Länder ” (TdL). Here she became known for her hard hand in the collective bargaining in the public service in 1992, when she negotiated the demand of the ÖTV from 9.5% to 5.4%. Leading social democratic politicians, such as the then Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Gerhard Schröder , had previously urged them to be more indulgent.

After Björn Engholm resigned on May 3, 1993, Heide Simonis was elected as his successor on May 19, 1993. She was the first and until the election of Christine Lieberknecht in 2009 in Thuringia the only female Prime Minister at the head of a federal state . After the SPD lost an absolute majority in the state elections in 1996 , it formed a coalition with the Greens , which was also confirmed in the state elections in 2000 . During her reign, the Lohmann affair broke out in 2002 .

After the result of the state elections on February 20, 2005 , from which the CDU emerged as the strongest parliamentary group, the formation of a government was uncertain. The SPD and the Greens together had 33, the CDU and FDP together 34. Heide Simonis formed a grand coalition under the leadership of the CDU on February 21, 2005 in the Beckmann talk show with the words “And where do I stay?” , Which earned her the name “ Pattex- Heide”. The decisive question was how the two members of the South Schleswig voters' association would behave. After the SSW had decided to tolerate a red-green minority government (" Dänenampel "), the re-election of Simonis was considered certain.

At the constituent session of the state parliament on March 17, 2005, Simonis and CDU state chairman Peter Harry Carstensen stood for election. Both of them could not get the required majority of votes in four ballots. At least one member of the agreed coalition or the SSW abstained from voting in the secret ballot , although the SPD and Green parliamentary groups reported after meetings that had been held in the meantime that there had been neither votes against Simonis nor abstentions in trial votes. To this day it is unknown who refused to give her the vote (“Heide-Murderer” debate). After the tie remained unchanged in the fourth ballot, Simonis withdrew her candidacy (see also Election of the Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein 2005 ). Until the election of Peter Harry Carstensen in the fifth ballot on April 27, 2005, however, she remained in office as executive prime minister.

Cabinets

Social Commitment

From 1999 to 2002 Simonis was a member of the advisory board of the WHO Center for Health Development in Kobe / Japan for the Europe region . Heide Simonis helped the initiative Schüler Helfen Leben in its development phase - and made it possible for the initiative to hold the first Social Day in Schleswig-Holstein. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Foundation of Schüler Helfen Leben.

The Stark Prize was launched by Heide Simonis in 2001 and then awarded annually.

In October 2005, Heide Simonis, who has no children of her own, was elected honorary chairman of UNICEF Germany and dedicated herself primarily to the “Schools for Africa” project. She first approached this organization in autumn 1995 to support an aid campaign for the children during the wars in Yugoslavia . In 2001 she particularly supported the Bring the children through the winter campaign to provide children in Afghanistan with the most basic things they need. In January 2002, immediately after the fall of the Taliban , she traveled to Kabul and visited UNICEF projects in schools and hospitals. In May 2005 she was elected to the board of the German Committee for UNICEF and on October 17, 2005 she was elected chairwoman of UNICEF Germany. During the term of office of ex-Prime Minister Heide Simonis, a donation scandal of the children's aid organization falls. As a result, she resigned as Chairwoman of UNICEF Germany on February 2, 2008. The preliminary investigation against the then managing director of the children's aid organization Dietrich Garlichs was later discontinued.

In spring 2006, Simonis took together with the dancers Hendrik Höfken on television dance competition Let's Dance radio station RTL in part. She saw this as part of her commitment to the UNICEF Children's Fund. The Bild newspaper accompanied the television program with a campaign against Simonis (“Hoppel-Heide”). Simonis resigned from the dance tournament, stating health reasons.

In spring 2010 she took part in the program Die Promi-Pauker , broadcast by ZDFneo . In the show, she had to teach as a teacher in a sixth grade. In December 2011 she took part in the VOX cookery show Who Eats Better? part.

In 2010/2011, Simonis was hired by Lufthansa and the flight attendant union UFO as an arbitrator and arbitrated the wage dispute that had been unsuccessful for almost two years and largely revolved around the working conditions of Lufthansa cabin crew.

From 2011 to 2015 Heide Simonis was President of the Schleswig-Holstein Singing Association.

Others

Simonis survived breast cancer in 2002. In 2014, she spoke publicly for the first time about her Parkinson's disease , which she has suffered from since 2012.

Publications

  • Don't mince your words. Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-455-11192-0 .
  • Among men: my life in politics. CH Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-50959-2 .
  • Distributed, pocketed with Erich Maletze . To Klampen Verlag, Springe 2007, ISBN 978-3-86674-012-9 .
  • Three Rhine daughters. A childhood on the Rhine after 1945. Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-416-03234-6 .
  • Gambled away! Why the cards of market and state have to be reshuffled. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-525-30002-2 .
  • All fairy tales! Insiders unpack. Lutherisches Verlagshaus, Hannover 2013, ISBN 978-3-7859-1126-6 .
  • Herring days . Borbyer Werkstatt Verlag, Eckernförde 2016, ISBN 978-3-940586-10-0 (detective novel)
  • Three Rhine daughters. Childhood experiences in the post-war period. Audiolino Verlag, Hamburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-86737-306-7 (audio book)
  • Quilt calendar . Borbyer Werkstattverlag, Eckernförde 2018.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Heide Simonis resigns. In: Stern.de , February 2, 2008.
  2. ↑ Profile: Volker Rühe and Heide Simonis. on: Spiegel online . February 18, 2000.
  3. ↑ It was one of our own ranks , Heide Simonis in conversation with Rainer Burchardt . Broadcast in the series Zeitzeugen im Interview by Deutschlandfunk on August 30, 2007.
  4. ↑ a b https://www.wzb.eu/www2000/eme/pdf/simonis/simonis-cv.de.pdf at the Berlin Science Center for Social Research , June 25, 2006.
  5. ↑ Heide Simonis: Politician life: How I became Germany's first Prime Minister. In: one day . October 10, 2007.
  6. ↑ It was a man with iron nerves . In: Der Tagesspiegel . ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed on October 15, 2016]).
  7. ↑ Mariam Lau, Matthias Krupa : Resignation: Can a politician just leave? In: The time . July 22, 2010, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed October 15, 2016]).
  8. ↑ Web dossier of the Frankfurter Rundschau ( Memento from January 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Tanz-Heide didn't deserve that! . In: Stern. May 8, 2006.
  10. ↑ Heide Simonis: And what will become of me? An honorary citizen! In: The world. June 30, 2014.
  11. ↑ Japanese Order for Simonis
  12. ^ Schleswig-Holstein milestone - Association of German Sinti and Roma e. V.

Web links

Commons : Heide Simonis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Simonis, heather
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), Member of the State Parliament, Member of Parliament, Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn